Chapter 9 - JULIAN'S LAST SECRETI was not allowed to meet Julian alone.
Obviously.
Mom said no.
Grandma said no.
Adrian said a word Grandma told him not to say around children.
Emma asked what it meant.
Nobody answered.
Julian was in federal custody.
He looked different without expensive clothes.
Smaller.
He stared at me through the glass.
“You look like Michael.”
I sat down.
“So everyone says.”
“I hated him.”
“That's rude.”
Julian laughed.
Then winced.
“Michael was impossible to frighten.”
“My mom says Emma is like that.”
Emma waved from behind the observation window.
Julian smiled.
“I believe her.”
I asked, “Why did you want me?”
His smile disappeared.
“Because Mercer is going to take your mother.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Julian continued.
“He doesn't need the ledger anymore.”
“Then what?”
“Claire's memory.”
Mom stared.
Julian explained.
Years earlier, Mom had seen the original Black Harbor account structure.
Some accounts were never written in the ledger.
They existed only in a sequence of transactions Mom had memorized.
Mercer believed she still remembered.
Mom whispered, “I don't.”
Julian looked at her.
“He won't believe you.”
Adrian demanded Mercer's location.
Julian gave him one.
An old rehabilitation hospital outside Connecticut.
The same place Mom had spent three days after her accident.
Mercer had been close to her from the beginning.
Federal agents raided the building.
Empty.
Another trap.
When we returned to the safe house, Mom was gone.
Her wheelchair sat beside the elevator.
A syringe lay on the floor.
Adrian became terrifying.
I had never seen him like that.
He didn't shout.
That was worse.
He called people.
Cars moved.
Planes stopped.
Roads closed.
Emma cried in Grandma's arms.
I stared at Mom's empty chair.
Then I remembered something.
Mom's bracelet.
Adrian had given all of us emergency trackers.
Mom complained.
But she wore hers.
Mara checked.
No signal.
Emma wiped her eyes.
“Maybe it's blocked.”
Everyone looked at her.
She continued.
“The pink phone lost signal in the hospital basement.”
Adrian stared.
“Underground.”
Mara searched Mercer's known properties.
One had an underground surgical facility.
We found Mom.
Mercer had her strapped to a chair.
He wanted account numbers.
Mom kept saying she didn't remember.
Mercer didn't believe her.
Adrian entered through the service tunnel.
Federal agents surrounded the building.
Mercer held a gun to Mom's head.
“You destroyed everything,” he told her.
Mom looked at him.
“No.”
Her voice was calm.
“You did.”
Mercer smiled.
“Your daughters will grow up without you.”
Adrian stepped from the shadows.
“No.”
Mercer turned.
The gun fired.
Mom screamed.
Adrian fell.
Everything happened at once.
Agents rushed in.
Mercer ran.
Mara tackled him.
Mom crawled toward Adrian.
Blood covered his shirt.
“Adrian!”
He opened his eyes.
“Still here.”
Mom cried.
“You idiot.”
“I've been called worse.”
She kissed him.
Right there.
Emma covered my eyes.
I moved her hand.
“I want to see.”
“That's gross.”
“You were the one who said they liked each other.”
“I didn't say they should kiss.”
Adrian survived.
Mercer was arrested.
Black Harbor collapsed.
But one secret remained.
The truth about Adrian's collapse in the park.
Julian had poisoned him.
But Adrian had not walked through Riverside Park by accident.
May you like
He had been following someone.
Our mother.
